Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

24-Jan-2001 -- This confluence is in the Appalachian Mountain chain in western
North Carolina, slightly west of the Eastern Continental Divide. It's also about
21 miles from my house.

My buddy Jim made this trip with me. He had the car, the compass and the water.
I brought the GPS and the camera. The confluence is on the side of a rather steep
mountain, which can be approached from several sides. We came in on Hwy 221,
turning off to go through the tiny communities of Stamey Town and Pyatte. This
route offered a chance to minimize the amount of uphill walking.

Within about a mile of the confluence, the road got too rough for the car, so we
started hoofing it. Most of the area around the confluence is used for Christmas tree
farming. The road was on a ridge, so the views were great. We hiked over a bald
peak that had a cell phone tower on it and started descending towards the confluence.
We entered a hardwood forest about a quarter mile from the destination. As we got
closer, it became apparent that the spot was in a rather dense rhododendron thicket.
Zeroing out the GPS was becoming a pill until Jim brought out the compass. The
spot was quite close to a springhead. The ice buildup from the spring was a nice
site in the rhododendron. After shooting pictures of the area, we started the trek
back out.

There were several man made rock formations along our path in and out.
They could have been the result of clearing the pasture at the peak or an
abandoned mine in the area. There was also quite a bit of mica on the ground,
which is probably the main product of the mine.